Fota Wildlife Park – My favourite place in Cork!

It’s my favourite place to go when I come home and getting up early to spend all day walking around in a persistent drizzle to get the most out of the visit was more than worth it.The last visit I paid was just about a year ago and I was delighted with the changes and developments that have been going on. The white-tailed sea eagles are getting an extension. The whole of the entrance has been revamped with a new cafe, gift shop and education centre. The ever more popular meerkats have joined Fota’s team of conservation ambassadors.I was most excited by the addition of a beautiful group of grey-cheeked mangabeys to the collection. Watching them cracking walnut shells without even the slightest effort and stuffing their cheek pouches made me smile. They share an enclosure with the meerkats, warming their bellys in the picture. Getting off the train to the sound of dueting Lar gibbons was pretty cool too! Having the park almost to ourselves was a treat (coz most people probably wouldn’t be very attracted to the idea of walking around all day in the rain).

I was impressed by the abundace of young throughout the park including Lar gibbon, Agile gibbon, Grant’s zebra (above), Howler monkey, Columbian black spider monkey (first picture on the right, not the best quality but they are so gorgeous I had to include it), Rothschild giraffe, Eastern grey kangaroo , Chilean flamingo, lion-tailed macaque, ostrich. Personally ostriches scare me but they were still a delight. Seeing the gibbons and other primates making use of every bit of their enclosures was great to see, and seeing a joey in its mama’s pouch for the first time was a treat(right)!